No. 7.] DAWSON — COAL SEAMS. 423 



NOTES ON THE MORE IMPORTANT COAL SEAMS 

 OF THE BOW AND BELLY RIVER DISTRICTS. 



Ry George M, Dawson, D.S., F.G.S., Associate Royal School of Mines. 



The fuels contained in the rocks of the Bow and Belly 

 River districts vary from lignites, but slightly superior in 

 quality to those of the Souris region, to materials containing a 

 very small percentage of water, forming a strong coke on heat- 

 ing, yielding abundance of highly luminous hydrocarbons, and 

 precisely resembling ordinary bituminous coals, though of Creta- 

 ceous or Laramie age. In describing them the general term coal 

 will be used, as it is impossible to draw a definite line between 

 the two classes a mono- the numerous intermediate varieties. 



A seam of coal of good quality occurring on the lower Bow 

 and Belly Rivers, is seen in the banks for many miles at a vary- 

 ing height above the water, owing to the lighi; undulating dips by 

 which it is affected. It is generally not more than a foot or 

 eighteen inches in thickness though so persistent in extent, but 

 at one point on the Belly River it thickens to three feet, forming 

 a workable seam, which appears to be of good quality through- 

 out. This locality is thirty-two miles in a direct line from 

 '• Coal Banks." No analysis has yet been made of this fuel. 



The locality just referred to as " Coal Banks" is at the cross- 

 ing of the Belly River by the trail to Benton. The coal occur- 

 ring at this place is that which has been described as existing at 

 the base of the Pierre. It is one of the best in the district, and 

 has been worked to a small extent for some years at this point 

 by Mr. N. Sheran. The outcrop of this seam is now known to 

 extend from a point about six miles up the St. Mary River to 

 that part of the Belly near and below Coal Banks, and then to 

 run northward to the Bow River. South of the point indicated 

 on the St. Mary River, it has not yet been traced, but as it ap- 

 pears remarkably constant in thickness and general character, 

 both here and at the Bow River, sixty-six miles distant, it doubt- 

 less extends considerably further in each direction, and may also 

 be assumed to underlie the plains between the Belly and Bow 

 Rivers in workable thickness. 



The drift deposits average about one hundred feet in thickness 

 over this part of the plains, and it is consequently, in general, 



